Embodiments herein generally relate to computerized and printing devices and methods and more particularly to providing draft printing processes that use less ink and toner, yet still make all printed features easily viewable by the user by determining the optimal contrast level for draft-mode printing using a spatial frequency analysis.
In order to lessen the environmental impact of modern printing devices, and to reduce operating costs, sometimes it may be desirable to print document and image drafts at lower quality settings using reduced ink and toner settings. Many times such lower quality draft prints are desirable because the viewer is not interested in the quality of the printing, but instead is only concerned with the layout, accuracy, impact, etc., of the printed item. A user may print and discard many versions of the draft document before they arrive at a finalized item that they wish to print in high-quality.
Therefore, when reviewing a draft print, the user is often happy to work with lower quality prints when going through a series of draft documents because such lower quality prints reduce the amount of ink or toner being consumed, which helps reduce the user's costs (and reduces the user's impact upon the environment) so long as there is a minimum readable lightness.
However, when reducing the amount of ink or toner needed to produce a draft document, it is still desirable that all printed items be visible on the draft document. This could result in some printed items being printed at an unnecessarily higher quality in order to assure that all printed items are made visible on the printed sheet. Thus, there are still many areas for reducing the amount of marking material (ink, toner, etc.) when providing draft printing.